Podcast From The Past

Joining TOM JACKSON to discuss the postcards from her past is violinist, musical director and author HELEN O’HARA (Dexy’s Midnight Runners, What She’s Like). Together we meet the knockoff Bee Gees, send a bikini to Birmingham, discover a battleship charm, and ponder Eddie Calvert played backwards. And we’ll hear tales of life on the road, shopping sprees in Brooks Brothers and letting down the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra for a life in pop music. Wish you were here?

Joining TOM JACKSON to discuss the postcards from her past is Professor of Literacy Studies in the Department of Linguistics and English Language at Lancaster University and principal investigator of the Edwardian Postcard Project, JULIA GILLEN (The Edwardian Picture Postcard as a Communications Revolution: A Literacy Studies Perspective). Together we meet Ruby and Arthur and learn about theur cycling trips, consider the digital shoebox, spend the day in a spaceship made of sand and wonder where the earwigs went. And we’ll hear crosshatched tales of unexpected family reunions and how the census can fill in the postcard gaps. Wish you were here?

Joining TOM JACKSON to discuss the postcards from his past is writer and autograph dealer ADAM ANDRUSIER (The Autograph Hunter). Together we consider fame, authenticity and collecting, encountering on the way the few celebrity inhabitants of Pinner, a reluctant Ray Charles, a broken wrist and a cancelled holiday. We get our pictures drawn by computer, meet the poet laureate and man the telex while doing our best not to leak state secrets on a postcard. Wish you were here?

Joining TOM JACKSON to discuss the postcards from his past is writer and traveller MAX LEONARD (Vintage Alpine Postcards, Higher Calling, Bunker Research and Lanterne Rouge). Together we head for the mountains, encountering on the way stolen cakes, power cuts and proof of penguins and pump rooms. We meet the spirit of the glacier, consider imagined mountain scenery, a revolving solarium and the underwhelming lights of Broadstairs. Wish you were here?

Joining TOM JACKSON to discuss the postcards from her past - in our new, streamlined format - is writer LUCY LETHBRIDGE (Servants, Tourists: How the British Went Abroad to Find Themselves). Together we put on our patented sunset spectacles and consider impulsive trips abroad prompted by postcards, how to plan for the wrestling and the joys of a good shower of British seaside rain. Plus collapsible travelling bathtubs and - is 45p a good price for a troll called Heather? Wish you were here?

Joining TOM JACKSON to discuss the postcards from her past - in our new, streamlined format - is art critic, writer and broadcaster CRISTÍN LEACH (Negative Space, From Ten till Dusk, A Portrait of the Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts in 12 Stories). Together we experience the magic of living below the waterline, put unlikely objects on a colour photocopier, visit the flying hotel of Woolacombe, suffer broken watch-springs in Alicante, and consider some not-quite postcards of the Dublin Art Club. Plus we decorate our walls salon-style with postcards and watch the body-popping boys outside C & A. Wish you were here?